Seoul, March 22 (IANS) North Korea is set to hold the first session of its new Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) on Sunday amid attention on whether the regime will codify its hostile policy toward South Korea in its constitution.
The parliamentary session comes after new deputies were selected following last month’s Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
The country’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday the session will be held in Pyongyang “to deliberate on the election of the president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the elections of the state leadership and sub-committees of the SPA, (and) the revision and supplement of the Socialist Constitution.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has defined the two Koreas as “two countries hostile to each other,” and whether this policy will be codified in the constitution is being closely watched by officials and analysts in South Korea and other regional powers, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Also of interest is whether Kim will deliver a speech addressing North Korea’s relations with the South, the United States and other countries.
The KCNA said the agenda will include the five-year national economic development plan adopted at the congress and the state budget for 2026.
Kim is expected to be re-elected as the country’s top leader, with the same title of chief of the State Affairs Commission.
Party secretary Jo Yong-won, known as one of Kim’s closest aides, is widely expected to be elected chairman of the SPA standing committee, likely replacing Choe Ryong-hae, who was relieved of the post during the congress and excluded from the new-term parliament.
North Korea typically convenes an SPA session after a party congress to legislate laws needed to implement decisions made at the congress.
The parliament, however, is widely seen as a body that rubber-stamps decisions made by the ruling party.
–IANS
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